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This paper is concerned with designing algorithms for and analyzing the computational complexity of the partial vertex cover problem in trees. Graphs (and trees) are frequently used to model risk management in various systems. In particular, Caskurlu et al. in [4] have considered a system which essentially represents a tripartite graph. The goal in this model is to reduce the risk in the system below a predefined risk threshold level. It can be shown that the main goal in this risk management system can be formulated as a Partial Vertex Cover problem on bipartite graphs. In this paper, we focus on a special case of the partial vertex cover problem, when the input graph is a tree. We consider four possible versions of this setting, depending on whether or not, the vertices and edges are weighted. Two of these versions, where edges are assumed to be unweighted, are known to be polynomial-time solvable. However, the computational complexity of this problem with weighted edges, and possibly with weighted vertices, remained open. The main contribution of this paper is to resolve these questions by fully characterizing which variants of partial vertex cover remain NP-hard in trees, and which can be solved in polynomial time. In the paper, we propose two pseudo-polynomial DP-based algorithms for the most general case in which weights are present on both the edges and the vertices of the tree. One of these algorithms leads to a polynomial-time procedure, when weights are confined to the edges of the tree. The insights used in this algorithm are combined with additional scaling ideas to derive an FPTAS for the general case. A secondary contribution of this work is to propose a novel way of using centroid decompositions in trees, which could be useful in other settings as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops novel fast numerical solvers for subdiffusion problems with spatial interfaces. These problems are modeled by partial differential equations that contain both fractional order and conventional first order time derivatives. The former is non-local and approximated by L1 and L2 discretizations along with fast evaluation algorithms based on approximation by sums of exponentials. This results in an effective treatment of the "long-tail" kernel of subdiffusion. The latter is local and hence conventional implicit Euler or Crank-Nicolson discretizations can be used. Finite volumes are utilized for spatial discretization based on consideration of local mass conservation. Interface conditions for mass and fractional uxes are incorporated into these fast solvers. Computational complexity and implementation procedures are briey discussed. Numerical experiments demonstrate accuracy and efficiency of these new fast solvers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 70 s, Berge introduced 1-extendable graphs (also called B-graphs), which are graphs where every vertex belongs to a maximum independent set. Motivated by an application in the design of wireless networks, we study the computational complexity of 1-extendability, the problem of deciding whether a graph is 1-extendable. We show that, in general, 1-extendability cannot be solved in 2 o (n) time assuming the Exponential Time Hypothesis, where n is the number of vertices of the input graph, and that it remains NP-hard in subcubic planar graphs and in unit disk graphs (which is a natural model for wireless networks). Although 1-extendability seems to be very close to the problem of finding an independent set of maximum size (a.k.a.Maximum Independent Set), we show that, interestingly, there exist 1-extendable graphs for which Maximum Independent Set is NP-hard. Finally, we investigate a parameterized version of 1-extendability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs an interval partition linearization algorithm for solving minimax linear fractional programming (MLFP) problem. In this algorithm, MLFP is converted and decomposed into a series of linear programs by dividing the outer 1-dimensional space of the equivalent problem (EP) into polynomially countable intervals. To improve the computational efficiency of the algorithm, two new acceleration techniques are introduced, in which the regions in outer space where the optimal solution of EP does not exist are largely deleted. In addition, the global convergence of the proposed algorithm is summarized, and its computational complexity is illustrated to reveal that it is a fully polynomial time approximation scheme. Finally, the numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is feasible and effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bayesian optimization algorithms are widely used for solving problems with a high computational complexity in terms of objective function evaluation. The efficiency of Bayesian optimization is strongly dependent on the quality of the surrogate models of an objective function, which are built and refined at each iteration. The quality of surrogate models, and hence the performance of an optimization algorithm, can be greatly improved by selecting the appropriate hyperparameter values of the approximation algorithm. The common approach to finding good hyperparameter values for each iteration of Bayesian optimization is to build surrogate models with different hyperparameter values and choose the best one based on some estimation of the approximation error, for example, a cross-validation score. Building multiple surrogate models for each iteration of Bayesian optimization is computationally demanding and significantly increases the time required to solve an optimization problem. This paper suggests a new approach, called exploratory landscape validation, to find good hyperparameter values with less computational effort. Exploratory landscape validation metrics can be used to predict the best hyperparameter values, which can improve both the quality of the solutions found by Bayesian optimization and the time needed to solve problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dominator coloring of a graph G is a proper vertex coloring with a domination property that each vertex dominates a color class. The minimum number of colors used in a dominator coloring of G is called dominator chromatic number of G and is denoted as χ d (G). Graphs with χ d (G) ≤ 3 have characterizations and such graphs can be recognized in polynomial time. However, for k ≥ 4 , deciding whether χ d (G) ≤ k is NP-hard. In this paper, we investigate the computational complexity of minimum q -dominator partization problem (Min- q -D-Partz). In Min- q -D-Partz, given a graph G , the objective is to find a vertex set S of minimum size such that χ d (G [ V ∖ S ]) ≤ q. We prove that Min- 2 -D-Partz is APX-complete and has a two-factor approximation algorithm. We also prove that Min- 3 -D-Partz cannot be approximated within any constant factor and can be approximated within a factor of O (log n). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The length of a tree-decomposition of a graph is the maximum distance (in the graph) between two vertices of a same bag of the decomposition. The treelength of a graph is the minimum length among its tree-decompositions. Treelength of graphs has been studied for its algorithmic applications in classical metric problems such as Traveling Salesman Problem or metric dimension of graphs and also, in compact routing in the context of distributed computing. Deciding whether the treelength of a general graph is at most 2 is NP-complete (graphs of treelength one are precisely the chordal graphs), and it is known that the treelength of a graph cannot be approximated up to a factor less than 3 2 (the best known approximation algorithm for treelength has an approximation ratio of 3). However, nothing is known on the computational complexity of treelength in planar graphs, except that the treelength of any outerplanar graph is equal to the third of the size of a largest isometric cycle. This work initiates the study of treelength in planar graphs by considering the next natural subclass of planar graphs, namely the one of series–parallel graphs. We first fully describe the treelength of melon graphs (set of pairwise internally disjoint paths linking two vertices), showing that, even in such a restricted graph class, the expression of the treelength is not trivial. Then, we show that treelength can be approximated up to a factor 3 2 in series–parallel graphs. Our main result is a quadratic-time algorithm for deciding whether a series–parallel graph has treelength at most 2. Our latter result relies on a characterization of series–parallel graphs with treelength 2 in terms of an infinite family of forbidden isometric subgraphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceptual distance refers to the degree of proximity between two concepts within a conceptualization. It is closely related to semantic similarity and relationships, but its measurement strongly depends on the context of the given concepts. DIS-C represents an advancement in the computation of semantic similarity/relationships that is independent of the type of knowledge structure and semantic relations when generating a graph from a knowledge base (ontologies, semantic networks, and hierarchies, among others). This approach determines the semantic similarity between two indirectly connected concepts in an ontology by propagating local distances by applying an algorithm based on the All Pairs Shortest Path (APSP) problem. This process is implemented for each pair of concepts to establish the most effective and efficient paths to connect these concepts. The algorithm identifies the shortest path between concepts, which allows for an inference of the most relevant relationships between them. However, one of the critical issues with this process is computational complexity, combined with the design of APSP algorithms, such as Dijkstra, which is n 3 . This paper studies different alternatives to improve the DIS-C approach by adapting approximation algorithms, focusing on Dijkstra, pruned Dijkstra, and sketch-based methods, to compute the conceptual distance according to the need to scale DIS-C to analyze very large graphs; therefore, reducing the related computational complexity is critical. Tests were performed using different datasets to calculate the conceptual distance when using the original version of DIS-C and when using the influence area of nodes. In situations where time optimization is necessary for generating results, using the original DIS-C model is not the optimal method. Therefore, we propose a simplified version of DIS-C to calculate conceptual distances based on centrality estimation. The obtained results for the simple version of DIS-C indicated that the processing time decreased 2.381 times when compared to the original DIS-C version. Additionally, for both versions of DIS-C (normal and simple), the APSP algorithm decreased the computational cost when using a two-hop coverage-based approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graph is called a sum graph if its vertices can be labelled by distinct positive integers such that there is an edge between two vertices if and only if the sum of their labels is the label of another vertex of the graph. Most papers on sum graphs consider combinatorial questions like the minimum number of isolated vertices that need to be added to a given graph to make it a sum graph. In this paper, we initiate the study of sum graphs from the viewpoint of computational complexity. Notice that every n-vertex sum graph can be represented by a sorted list of n positive integers where edge queries can be answered in O (log n) time. Therefore, upper-bounding the numbers used as vertex labels also upper-bounds the space complexity of storing the graph in the database. We show that every n-vertex, m-edge, d-degenerate graph can be made a sum graph by adding at most m isolated vertices to it, such that the largest numbers used as vertex labels grows as O (n 2 d) . This enables us to store the graph using O (m log n) bits of memory. For sparse graphs (graphs with O (n) edges), this matches the trivial lower bound of Ω (n log n) . As planar graphs and forests have constant degeneracy, our result implies an upper bound of O (n 2) on their label numbers. The previously best known upper bound on the numbers needed for labelling general graphs with the minimum number of isolated vertices was O (4 n) , due to Kratochvíl, Miller & Nguyen (2001). Furthermore, their proof was existential, whereas our labelling can be constructed in polynomial time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study algorithmic Bayesian persuasion problems in which the principal (a.k.a. the sender) has to persuade multiple agents (a.k.a. receivers) by using public communication channels. Specifically, our model follows the multi-receiver model with no inter-agent externalities introduced by Arieli and Babichenko (J Econ Theory 182:185–217, 2019). It is known that the problem of computing a sender-optimal public persuasive signaling scheme is not approximable even in simple settings. Therefore, prior works usually focus on determining restricted classes of the problem for which efficient approximation is possible. Typically, positive results in this space amounts to finding bi-criteria approximation algorithms yielding an almost optimal and almost persuasive solution in polynomial time. In this paper, we take a different perspective and study the persuasion problem in the general setting where the space of the states of nature, the action space of the receivers, and the utility function of the sender can be arbitrary. We fully characterize the computational complexity of computing a bi-criteria approximation of an optimal public signaling scheme in such settings. In particular, we show that, assuming the Exponential Time Hypothesis, solving this problem requires at least a quasi-polynomial number of steps even in instances with simple utility functions and binary action spaces such as an election with the k-voting rule. In doing so, we prove that a relaxed version of the Maximum Feasible Subsystem of Linear Inequalities problem requires at least quasi-polynomial time to be solved. Finally, we close the gap by providing a quasi-polynomial time bi-criteria approximation algorithm for arbitrary public persuasion problems that, under mild assumptions, yields a QPTAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work considers the Minimum Path-Collection Exact Cover (PCEC) and the Minimum k -Path Splitting Exact Cover (k-PSEC). Both problems receive a digraph G and a set P of paths in G , and their objective is to find a minimum cardinality set S of paths, whose elements are arc-disjoint and cover all arcs of G. Despite the similarities, the solutions for each problem must satisfy different properties. For k-PSEC , the set S must be obtained by splitting the paths in P in order to guarantee that no element of S has length greater than a given integer k. For PCEC , the paths in P cannot be split, and the elements of S are single arcs of G or complete paths of P. PCEC and k-PSEC have practical applications in network design and network monitoring systems, being also natural versions of graph covering problems. However, there are no theoretical studies on their complexity. This work not only presents NP-hardness results for the problems, but also proves that, unless P = NP , PCEC cannot be | P | O (1) -approximated in polynomial-time. Moreover, polynomial-time algorithms are presented for paths, cycles, and trees, and polynomial-time approximation algorithms are proposed for special cases of k-PSEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel semi-supervised learning (SSL) assumption—the high separation probability (HSP) assumption—that is complementary to the common low density separation (LDS) assumption, and a highly accurate and efficient SSL algorithm, the transductive minimax probability machine (TMPM). Under the HSP assumption, a preferred classifier should ensure that with high probability the samples are far away from the decision boundary. Similarly, the LDS assumption states that the decision boundary should lie in a low-density region. A remarkable property of HSP is that it provides an elegant theoretical framework for analyzing the generalization performance of SSL, while it remains difficult for the LDS assumption to have a quantitative criterion on how it fits the data. Moreover, it has the same paradigm as the minimax probability machine (MPM) and yields an intractable mixed-integer optimization for solving the transductive label assignment problem. Consequently, we propose TMPM with a label-switching strategy and iterative manner to formalize our approximate solution. Theoretically, we analyze the computational complexity, convergence property, and generalization error bound of TMPM. Empirically, we show that TMPM achieves competitive performance on a wide range of datasets, while being almost one order of magnitude faster than existing SSL approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we consider the problem of estimating diffraction attenuation from the approximation of terrain using a multiple bridged knife-edge model. This model can be considered as a generalization of the well-known multiple knife-edge (MKE) one where spaces between knife-edges are bridged by reflecting surfaces. A series-based-standard solution is presented in the literature but suffers from its very high computational complexity. We, thus, propose to generalize the recursive Vogler algorithm developed for the MKE model to tackle this problem. To reduce complexity, the proposed algorithm exploits the recursive form to avoid repeated calculations of the existing solution. Moreover, we provide a complexity analysis of both the standard algorithm and the proposed algorithm based on the number of computed integrals. Both theoretical and numerical results show that our proposed algorithm is faster than the original one while having identical accuracy, hence proving the effectiveness of our solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the consensus interdiction problem (CIP), in which the goal is to maximize the convergence time of consensus averaging dynamics subject to removing a limited number of network edges. We first show that CIP can be cast as an effective resistance interdiction problem (ERIP), in which the goal is to remove a limited number of network edges to maximize the effective resistance between a source node and a sink node. We show that ERIP is strongly NP-hard, even for bipartite graphs of diameter three with fixed source/sink edges, and establish the same hardness result for the CIP. We then show that both ERIP and CIP cannot be approximated up to a (nearly) polynomial factor assuming the exponential time hypothesis. Subsequently, we devise a polynomialtime mn-approximation algorithm for the ERIP that only depends on the number of nodes n and the number of edges m but is independent of the size of edge resistances. Finally, using a quadratic program formulation for the CIP, we devise an iterative approximation algorithm to find a first-order stationary solution for the CIP and evaluate its good performance through numerical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The smallest minimum color-spanning circle (S-MCSC) problem can be solved in O (n k log ⁡ n) time. • The largest minimum color-spanning circle (L-MCSC) problem is NP-Hard. • A 1 3 -factor (1 2 , if no two distinct color disks intersect) approximation to the L-MCSC problem can be computed in O (n k log ⁡ n) time. Let R be a set of n colored imprecise points, where each point is colored by one of k colors. Each imprecise point is specified by a unit disk in which the point lies. We study the problem of computing the smallest and the largest possible minimum color spanning circle, among all possible choices of points inside their corresponding disks. We present an O (n k log ⁡ n) time algorithm to compute a smallest minimum color spanning circle. Regarding the largest minimum color spanning circle, we show that the problem is NP - Hard and present a 1 3 -factor approximation algorithm. We improve the approximation factor to 1 2 for the case where no two disks of distinct color intersect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaussian processes (GPs) are popular models for functions, time series, and spatial fields, but direct application of GPs is computationally infeasible for large datasets. We propose a multi-scale Vecchia (MSV) approximation of GPs for modeling and analysis of multi-scale phenomena, which are ubiquitous in geophysical and other applications. In the MSV approach, increasingly large sets of variables capture increasingly small scales of spatial variation, to obtain an accurate approximation of the spatial dependence from very large to very fine scales. For a given set of observations, the MSV approach decomposes the data into different scales, which can be visualized to obtain insights into the underlying processes. We explore properties of the MSV approximation and propose an algorithm for automatic choice of the tuning parameters. We provide comparisons to existing approaches based on simulated data and using satellite measurements of land-surface temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce and study a class of optimization problems we call replenishment problems with fixed turnover times: a very natural model that has received little attention in the literature. Clients with capacity for storing a certain commodity are located at various places; at each client the commodity depletes within a certain time, the turnover time, which is constant but can vary between locations. Clients should never run empty. The natural feature that makes this problem interesting is that we may schedule a replenishment (well) before a client becomes empty, but then the next replenishment will be due earlier also. This added workload needs to be balanced against the cost of routing vehicles to do the replenishments. In this paper, we focus on the aspect of minimizing routing costs. However, the framework of recurring tasks, in which the next job of a task must be done within a fixed amount of time after the previous one is much more general and gives an adequate model for many practical situations. Note that our problem has an infinite time horizon. However, it can be fully characterized by a compact input, containing only the location of each client and a turnover time. This makes determining its computational complexity highly challenging and indeed it remains essentially unresolved. We study the problem for two objectives: min–avg minimizes the average tour cost and min–max minimizes the maximum tour cost over all days. For min–max we derive a logarithmic factor approximation for the problem on general metrics and a 6-approximation for the problem on trees, for which we have a proof of NP-hardness. For min–avg we present a logarithmic factor approximation on general metrics, a 2-approximation for trees, and a pseudopolynomial time algorithm for the line. Many intriguing problems remain open. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The minimum hitting set of bundles problem (Mhsb) is a natural generalization of the minimum hitting set problem, where instead of hitting single elements, bundles of elements are hit. More specifically, we are given a ground set of elements and a family of sets. Every set in this family contains bundles of elements, which are subsets of the ground set. The task is to find a collection of elements of minimum size such that at least one bundle of every set in the family is hit. Motivated by several applications, we consider Mhsb restricted to interval and 2-dimensional interval bundles. We study the computational complexity and give polynomial-time algorithms for several classes of instances with these special structured bundles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose a fast algorithm to generate a rank-minimized $\mathcal {H}^{2}$ -representation for solving electrically large volume integral equations (VIEs). Unlike existing methods whose complexity is as high as quadratic, the proposed algorithm has linearithmic complexity, and thus, it can handle problems with large electrical sizes. Furthermore, the algorithm is purely algebraic and kernel independent. Numerical experiments on electrically large 3-D arrays of dielectric cubes having over 33 million unknowns demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the product of determinantal point processes (DPPs), a point process whose probability mass is proportional to the product of principal minors of multiple matrices, as a natural, promising generalization of DPPs. We study the computational complexity of computing its normalizing constant , which is among the most essential probabilistic inference tasks. Our complexity-theoretic results (almost) rule out the existence of efficient algorithms for this task unless the input matrices are forced to have favorable structures. In particular, we prove the following: • Computing ∑ S det ⁡ (A S , S) p exactly for every (fixed) positive even integer p is UP -hard and Mod 3 P -hard, which gives a negative answer to an open question posed by Kulesza and Taskar [51]. • ∑ S det ⁡ (A S , S) det ⁡ (B S , S) det ⁡ (C S , S) is NP -hard to approximate within a factor of 2 O (| I | 1 − ε) or 2 O (n 1 / ε) for any ε > 0 , where | I | is the input size and n is the order of the input matrix. This result is stronger than the # P -hardness for the case of two matrices derived by Gillenwater [36]. • There exists a k O (k) n O (1) -time algorithm for computing ∑ S det ⁡ (A S , S) det ⁡ (B S , S) , where k is the maximum rank of A and B or the treewidth of the graph formed by nonzero entries of A and B. Such parameterized algorithms are said to be fixed-parameter tractable. These results can be extended to the fixed-size case. Further, we present two applications of fixed-parameter tractable algorithms given a matrix A of treewidth w : • We can compute a 2 n 2 p − 1 -approximation to ∑ S det ⁡ (A S , S) p for any fractional number p > 1 in w O (w p) n O (1) time. • We can find a 2 n -approximation to unconstrained maximum a posteriori inference in w O (w n) n O (1) time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deterministic time–frequency representations are commonly used in signal processing, particularly in audio processing. Whilst presenting many potential advantages, their probabilistic counterparts are not widely used, essentially because of the computational load and the lack of clear interpretability of the different underlying models. However, using state space models, they have been shown recently to be equivalent to Spectral Mixtures Gaussian processes (SM-GP). This pioneer work unlocks this problem and opens the path for the development of tractable and interpretable probabilistic time–frequency analysis. In this paper, we propose a relatively simple yet a significant improvement of that work in terms of computational complexity, flexibility and practical application. To do so, we use a recent approach for covariance approximation to develop an algorithm for faster inference of SM-GP, while opting for a frequency-domain approach to hyperparameter learning. We illustrate the practical potential of our method using voiced speech data. We first show that key speech features can be accurately learned from the data. Second, we show that our method can yield better performances in denoising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first TotP-complete problems under parsimonious reductions. • Hardness of approximation for these problems and some of their generalizations. • A family of hard-to-approximate instances for the complete problem Size-of-Subtree. • Exponential time hardness results for Size-of-Subtree under variants of the Exponential Time Hypothesis. • Approximation preserving reduction of the general #SAT to instances of it that are promised to be self-reducible with easy decision. Hard counting problems with easy decision version, like computing the permanent and counting independent sets, are of particular importance in counting complexity theory. TotP is the class of all self-reducible problems in # P with decision version in P. It has been a long standing open question to determine TotP -complete problems under strong reductions that preserve exactly the values of the functions (Karp), since Cook reductions blur structural differences between counting classes, specifically under Cook reductions TotP -complete problems are also # P -complete. In this paper we present the first such problems and we show some implications of these results to counting complexity. The problems that we prove to be TotP -complete under Karp reductions are: (a) #Tree-Monotone-Circuit-SAT , which further implies that it is hard to compute, both exactly and approximately, the number of satisfying assignments of monotone circuits, where the monotonicity is defined by a partial order which is given as part of the input. (b) Max-Lower-Set-Size , which implies that given a poset it is hard to compute and approximate the size of a principal upper set, and the size of the maximum lower set all elements of which share a given property P. (c) Size-of-Subtree , which directly implies that every problem in TotP admits a polynomial-time approximation algorithm the error of which depends on the amount of imbalance of the respective self-reducibility tree of the problem. We settle the worst case complexity of this problem, we provide a family of instances that are hard to approximate, and we show exponential time hardness results under variants of the exponential time hypothesis (ETH). (d) #Clustered-Monotone-SAT , which implies that approximating #SAT remains hard even on instances for which some kind of navigation among solutions is possible. Thus we narrow down any further research regarding the polynomial-time approximability of #SAT to instances with the aforementioned property. Among other implications, our results show that all these problems do not admit an FPRAS, unless NP = RP , something that we would not be able to conclude by showing them to be TotP -complete under Cook reductions.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a real-time anomaly detection method for directed activity on large, sparse networks. We model the propensity for future activity using a dynamic logistic model with interaction terms for sender- and receiver-specific latent factors in addition to sender- and receiver-specific popularity scores; deviations from this underlying model constitute potential anomalies. Latent nodal attributes are estimated via a variational Bayesian approach and may change over time, representing natural shifts in network activity. Estimation is augmented with a case-control approximation to take advantage of the sparsity of the network and reduces computational complexity from O (N 2) to O(E), where N is the number of nodes and E is the number of observed edges. We run our algorithm on network event records collected from an enterprise network of over 25,000 computers and are able to identify a red team attack with half the detection rate required of the model without latent interaction terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a simple, undirected, connected graph G , a function h : V (G) → { 0 , 1 , 2 } which satisfies the following conditions is called a weakly connected Roman dominating function (WCRDF) of G with weight h (V) = ∑ p ∈ V h (p). (C1). For all q ∈ V with h (q) = 0 there exists a vertex r such that (q , r) ∈ E and h (r) = 2 and (C2). The graph with vertex set V (G) and edge set { (p , z) : h (p) ≥ 1 or h (z) ≥ 1 or both } is connected. The problem of determining WCRDF of minimum weight is called minimum weakly connected Roman domination problem (MWCRDP). In this paper, we show that MWCRDP is polynomial time solvable for bounded treewidth graphs, threshold graphs and chain graphs. We design a 2 (1 +) (1 + ln (Δ − 1)) -approximation algorithm for the MWCRDP and show that the same cannot have (1 − δ) ln | V | ratio approximation algorithm for any δ > 0 unless P = N P. Next, we show that MWCRDP is APX-hard for graphs with Δ = 4. We also show that the domination and weakly connected Roman domination problems are not equivalent in computational complexity aspects. Finally, two different integer linear programming formulations for MWCRDP are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing wideband beampattern synthesis methods usually require multiple beamformers, each corresponding to one frequency bin, which results in excessive resource consumption in engineering practice. To alleviate the resource consumption of wideband array beamforming, we propose a novel time-domain wideband digital beamformer that can control the beam shape over the whole bandwidth for interference mitigation by using only one set of amplitude–phase weights and integer time delay filters. To tackle the resultant optimization problem, two effective algorithms are introduced, and both can solve the problem within polynomial time. One is an alternating optimization algorithm that decomposes the original problem into multiple tractable subproblems iteratively. The other is the convex approximation algorithm that transforms the original problem into a series of second-order cone programming problems iteratively. The two algorithms exhibit their respective advantages in terms of convergence and computational complexity. Extensive numerical examples are presented to evaluate the proposed time-domain wideband beamforming strategy, highlighting that it can form a deep notch in any interested spatial–spectral region to suppress the strong interferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a novel Bayesian approach for hyperspectral image unmixing. The observed pixels are modeled by a linear combination of material signatures weighted by their corresponding abundances. A spike-and-slab abundance prior is adopted to promote sparse mixtures and an Ising prior model is used to capture spatial correlation of the mixture support across pixels. We approximate the posterior distribution of the abundances using the expectation-propagation (EP) method. We show that it can significantly reduce the computational complexity of the unmixing stage and meanwhile provide uncertainty measures, compared to expensive Monte Carlo strategies traditionally considered for uncertainty quantification. Moreover, many variational parameters within each EP factor can be updated in a parallel manner, which enables mapping of efficient algorithmic architectures based on graphics processing units (GPUs). Under the same approximate Bayesian framework, we then extend the proposed algorithm to semi-supervised unmixing, whereby the abundances are viewed as latent variables and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is used to refine the endmember matrix. Experimental results on synthetic data and real hyperspectral data illustrate the benefits of the proposed framework over state-of-art linear unmixing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We study a k-wise generalization of the Kemeny rule. • We study the properties of this distance, and of the induced aggregation rule. • We introduce a k-wise counterpart of the majority graph. • We provide computational complexity results for the aggregation problem. • A polytime 2-approximation algorithm is provided for the aggregation problem. In this paper, we advocate the use of setwise contests for aggregating a set of input rankings into an output ranking. We propose a generalization of the Kemeny rule where one minimizes the number of k -wise disagreements instead of pairwise disagreements (one counts 1 disagreement each time the top choice in a subset of alternatives of cardinality at most k differs between an input ranking and the output ranking). After an algorithmic study of this k -wise Kemeny aggregation problem, we introduce a k -wise counterpart of the majority graph. This graph reveals useful to divide the aggregation problem into several sub-problems, which enables to speed up the exact computation of a consensus ranking. By introducing a k -wise counterpart of the Spearman distance, we also provide a 2-approximation algorithm for the k -wise Kemeny aggregation problem. We conclude with numerical tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical Rough Set Theory (RST) is a prominent tool to deal with uncertainty of categorical data. However, in a case where values of attributes maintain preference order over each other, RST does not consider it. Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (DRSA), a generalization of RST, studies the dominance aspect of attributes and defines the dominance relation. The lower and upper approximations form the basis of most algorithms based on RST. However, determining DRSA approximations is computationally expensive so that the algorithms using approximations may suffer serious performance bottleneck when dealing with datasets of larger sizes. In this paper, we proposed a heuristic approach to compute lower and upper approximations based on DRSA, in time efficient manner. The proposed algorithm directly calculates approximations without going through the heavy computations of dominance positive or negative cones. We introduce heuristic rules to calculate approximations without considering the intersection and subset relations. By using the properties and logical structure of approximations, our mathematical implications select an object for all relevant approximation sets. The proposed approach was compared with the conventional method using eleven benchmark datasets from UCI. The results showed that the proposed rules significantly reduce the execution time by avoiding the redundant computations, which ultimately affect the structural complexity and memory requirements. The average reduction in execution time was found to be 83%. The proposed approach also reduces the structural complexity and memory consumption by 89.69%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear estimation in robotics and vision is typically plagued with outliers due to wrong data association or incorrect detections from signal processing and machine learning methods. This article introduces two unifying formulations for outlier-robust estimation, generalized maximum consensus ($\text{G}$ - $\text{MC}$) and generalized truncated least squares ($\text{G-TLS}$), and investigates fundamental limits, practical algorithms, and applications. Our first contribution is a proof that outlier-robust estimation is inapproximable: In the worst case, it is impossible to (even approximately) find the set of outliers, even with slower-than-polynomial-time algorithms (particularly, algorithms running in quasi-polynomial time). As a second contribution, we review and extend two general-purpose algorithms. The first, adaptive trimming ($\text{ADAPT}$), is combinatorial and is suitable for $\text{G}$ - $\text{MC}$ ; the second, graduated nonconvexity ($\text{GNC}$), is based on homotopy methods and is suitable for $\text{G-TLS}$. We extend $\text{ADAPT}$ and $\text{GNC}$ to the case where the user does not have prior knowledge of the inlier-noise statistics (or the statistics may vary over time) and is unable to guess a reasonable threshold to separate inliers from outliers (as the one commonly used in RANdom SAmple Consensus $(\text{RANSAC})$. We propose the first minimally tuned algorithms for outlier rejection, which dynamically decide how to separate inliers from outliers. Our third contribution is an evaluation of the proposed algorithms on robot perception problems: mesh registration, image-based object detection (shape alignment), and pose graph optimization. $\text{ADAPT}$ and $\text{GNC}$ execute in real time, are deterministic, outperform $\text{RANSAC}$ , and are robust up to 80–90% outliers. Their minimally tuned versions also compare favorably with the state of the art, even though they do not rely on a noise bound for the inliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a constrained version of the Geometric Hitting Set problem where we are given a set of points, partitioned into pairwise disjoint subsets, and a set of intervals. The objective is to hit all the intervals with a minimum number of points such that if we select a point from a subset, we must select all the points from that subset. We consider two special cases of the problem where each subset can have at most 2 and 3 points. If each subset contains at most 2 points and the intervals are disjoint, we show that the problem admits a polynomial-time algorithm. On the contrary, if each subset contains at most t points, where t ≥ 2 , and the intervals are overlapping, we show that the problem becomes NP - Hard. Further, when each subset contains at most t points where t ≥ 3 , and the intervals are disjoint, we prove that the problem is NP - Hard , and we provide two constant factor approximation algorithms for this problem. We also study the problem from the parameterized complexity perspective. If the intervals are disjoint, then we prove that the problem is in FPT when parameterized by the size of the solution. We also complement this result by giving a lower bound in the size of the kernel for disjoint intervals, and we also provide a polynomial kernel when the size of all subsets is bounded by a constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrete random variables are essential ingredients in various artificial intelligence problems. These include the estimation of the probability of missing the deadline in a series-parallel schedule and the assignment of suppliers to tasks in a project in a manner that maximizes the probability of meeting the overall project deadline. The solving of such problems involves repetitive operations, such as summation, over random variables. However, these computations are NP-hard. Therefore, we explore techniques and methods for approximating random variables with a given support size and minimal Kolmogorov distance. We examine both the general problem of approximating a random variable and a one-sided version in which over-approximation is allowed but not under-approximation. We propose several algorithms and evaluate their performance through computational complexity analysis and empirical evaluation. All the presented algorithms are optimal in the sense that given an input random variable and a requested support size, they return a new approximated random variable with the requested support size and minimal Kolmogorov distance from the input random variable. Our approximation algorithms offer useful estimations of probabilities in situations where exact computations are not feasible due to NP-hardness complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of developing reliable forecasts that would allow decision makers to devise appropriate response strategies. Despite much recent research on the topic, epidemic forecasting remains poorly understood. Researchers have attributed the difficulty of forecasting contagion dynamics to a multitude of factors, including complex behavioral responses, uncertainty in data, the stochastic nature of the underlying process, and the high sensitivity of the disease parameters to changes in the environment. We offer a rigorous explanation of the difficulty of short-term forecasting on networked populations using ideas from computational complexity. Specifically, we show that several forecasting problems (e.g., the probability that at least a given number of people will get infected at a given time and the probability that the number of infections will reach a peak at a given time) are computationally intractable. For instance, efficient solvability of such problems would imply that the number of satisfying assignments of an arbitrary Boolean formula in conjunctive normal form can be computed efficiently, violating a widely believed hypothesis in computational complexity. This intractability result holds even under the ideal situation, where all the disease parameters are known and are assumed to be insensitive to changes in the environment. From a computational complexity viewpoint, our results, which show that contagion dynamics become unpredictable for both macroscopic and individual properties, bring out some fundamental difficulties of predicting disease parameters. On the positive side, we develop efficient algorithms or approximation algorithms for restricted versions of forecasting problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future cities promise to be more autonomous than ever, largely owing to our ability of coordinating complex systems in real time: fleets of self-driving cars will offer on-demand transportation services, delivery drones will fly parcels in our skies, power plants will provide renewable energy reliably. In many of these systems, there is no single decision-maker with full information and authority. Instead, the system performance greatly depends on the decisions made by interacting entities with local information and limited communication capabilities. Game theory, intended as the study of multi-agent decision-making, is a fitting paradigm to tackle many of the associated challenges. Moving from this observation, in this paper we review how tools and ideas from game theory can be brought to bear on the coordination of multi-agent systems. At the heart of the proposed approach is the design and influence of agents' preferences so that their local optimization induces a desirable system behavior. Its applicability spans a variety of settings irrespective of whether the decision makers are strategic (e.g., drivers in a road network), or not (e.g., delivery drones). Along the way, we also discuss future research directions and connections with related research areas including algorithmic game theory, incentive and mechanism design, economics, computational complexity, and approximation algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The covariance matrix reconstruction based robust adaptive beamforming (RAB) methods overcome the performance degradation due to the imprecise knowledge of the steering vector and the covariance matrix. However, high complexity limits the application of them. In this paper, we proposed a new RAB method based on interference plus noise covariance (INC) matrix reconstruction and desired signal steering vector estimation. In this method, nominal interference steering vectors are estimated by the Capon spatial spectrum, as well as noise power. Subsequently, the iterative mismatch approximation algorithm based on maximizing the beamformer output power is proposed to estimate all the incident signal steering vectors and powers, and the INC matrix is reconstructed. Finally, the beamformer is determined by the estimated INC matrix and desired signal steering vector. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method obtains better performance than other existed methods at both the high signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An algorithm for the fast computation of multistatic scattering patterns, produced by low-contrast inhomogeneous volumetric objects, which satisfy the Born approximation assumption, is presented. The algorithm relies on hierarchical interpolation and aggregation of optimally sampled phase-compensated partial contributions to the scattered field integral. The Born approximation enables the efficient simultaneous computation for ranges of incident and observation angles, as well as excitation frequencies. This leads to a reduction in the asymptotic computational complexity by several polynomial orders of the problem’s acoustical size. The algorithm’s error controllability and favorable computation time are demonstrated via representative examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we extend the bilinear generalized approximate message passing (BiG-AMP) approach, originally proposed for high-dimensional generalized bilinear regression, to the multi-layer case for the handling of cascaded problem such as matrix-factorization problem arising in relay communication among others. Assuming statistically independent matrix entries with known priors, the new algorithm called ML-BiGAMP could approximate the general sum-product loopy belief propagation (LBP) in the high-dimensional limit enjoying a substantial reduction in computational complexity. We demonstrate that, in large system limit, the asymptotic MSE performance of ML-BiGAMP could be fully characterized via a set of simple one-dimensional equations termed state evolution (SE). We establish that the asymptotic MSE predicted by ML-BiGAMP’ SE matches perfectly the exact MMSE predicted by the replica method, which is well-known to be Bayes-optimal but infeasible in practice. This consistency indicates that the ML-BiGAMP may still retain the same Bayes-optimal performance as the MMSE estimator in high-dimensional applications, although ML-BiGAMP's computational burden is far lower. As an illustrative example of the general ML-BiGAMP, we provide a detector design that could estimate the channel fading and the data symbols jointly with high precision for the two-hop amplify-and-forward relay communication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel sparse reconstruction algorithms are proposed for beamspace channel estimation in massive multiple-input multiple-output systems. The proposed algorithms minimize a least-squares objective having a nonconvex regularizer. This regularizer removes the penalties on a few large-magnitude elements from the conventional $\ell _{1}$ -norm regularizer, and thus it only forces penalties on the remaining elements that are expected to be zeros. Accurate and fast reconstructions can be achieved by performing gradient projection updates within the framework of difference of convex functions (DC) programming. A double-loop algorithm and a single-loop algorithm are proposed via different DC decompositions, and these two algorithms have distinct computational complexities and convergence rates. An extension algorithm is further proposed by designing new step sizes for the single-loop algorithm. The extension algorithm has a faster convergence rate and can achieve approximately the same level of accuracy as the proposed double-loop algorithm. Numerical results show significant advantages of the proposed algorithms over existing reconstruction algorithms in terms of reconstruction accuracies and runtimes. Compared with the benchmark channel estimation approaches, the proposed algorithms can achieve smaller channel reconstruction error and higher achievable spectral efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a simple, undirected, connected graph G , a function h : V (G) → { 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 } which satisfies the following conditions is called a total Roman {3}-dominating function (TR3DF) of G with weight h (V) = ∑ p ∈ V h (p) : (C1) For every vertex u ∈ V if h (u) = 0 , then u has m (m ≥ 1) neighbors such that whose sum is at least 3, and if h (u) = 1 , then u has n (n ≥ 1) neighbors such that whose sum is at least 2. (C2) The subgraph induced by the set of vertices labeled one, two or three has no isolated vertices. For a graph G , the smallest possible weight of a TR3DF of G denoted γ t { R 3 } (G) is known as the total Roman { 3 } -domination number of G. The problem of determining γ t { R 3 } (G) of a graph G is called minimum total Roman {3}-domination problem (MTR3DP). In this paper, we show that the problem of deciding if G has a TR3DF of weight at most l for chordal graphs is NP-complete. We also show that MTR3DP is polynomial time solvable for bounded treewidth graphs, chain graphs and threshold graphs. We design a 3 (ln (Δ − 0. 5) + 1. 5) -approximation algorithm for the MTR3DP and show that the same cannot have (1 − δ) ln | V | ratio approximation algorithm for any δ > 0 unless NP ⊆ DTIME (| V | O (log log | V |)). Next, we show that MTR3DP is APX-complete for graphs with Δ = 4. We also show that the domination and total Roman {3}-domination problems are not equivalent in computational complexity aspects. Finally, we present an integer linear programming formulation for MTR3DP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph coloring is one of the most famous computational problems with applications in a wide range of areas such as planning and scheduling, resource allocation, and pattern matching. So far coloring problems are mostly studied on static graphs, which often stand in contrast to practice where data is inherently dynamic. A temporal graph has an edge set that changes over time. We present a natural temporal extension of the classical graph coloring problem. Given a temporal graph and integers k and Δ, we ask for a coloring sequence with at most k colors for each vertex such that in every time window of Δ consecutive time steps, in which an edge is present, this edge is properly colored at least once. We thoroughly investigate the computational complexity of this temporal coloring problem. More specifically, we prove strong computational hardness results, complemented by efficient exact and approximation algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spreading processes on graphs are a natural model for a wide variety of real-world phenomena, including information spread over social networks and biological diseases spreading over contact networks. Often, the networks over which these processes spread are dynamic in nature, and can be modelled with temporal graphs. Here, we study the problem of deleting edges from a given temporal graph in order to reduce the number of vertices (temporally) reachable from a given starting point. This could be used to control the spread of a disease, rumour, etc. in a temporal graph. In particular, our aim is to find a temporal subgraph in which a process starting at any single vertex can be transferred to only a limited number of other vertices using a temporally-feasible path. We introduce a natural edge-deletion problem for temporal graphs and provide positive and negative results on its computational complexity and approximability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scaffolding is the final step in assembling Next Generation Sequencing data, in which pre-assembled contiguous regions ("contigs") are oriented and ordered using information that links them (for example, mapping of paired-end reads). As the genome of some species is highly repetitive, we allow placing some contigs multiple times, thereby generalizing established computational models for this problem. We study the subsequent problems induced by the translation of solutions of the model back to actual sequences, proposing models and analyzing the complexity of the resulting computational problems. We find both polynomial-time and NP -hard special cases like planarity or bounded degree. Finally, we propose two polynomial-time approximation algorithms according to cut/weight score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persuasion, defined as the act of exploiting an informational advantage in order to inuence the decisions of others, is ubiquitous. Indeed, persuasive communication has been estimated to account for almost a third of all economic activity in the U.S. This paper examines persuasion through a computational lens, focusing on what is perhaps the most basic and fundamental model in this space: the celebrated Bayesian persuasion model of Kamenica and Gentzkow [Am. Econ. Rev., 101 (2011), pp. 2590-2615]. Here there are two players, a sender and a receiver. The receiver must take one of a number of actions with an a priori unknown payoff, and the sender has access to additional information regarding the payoffs of the various actions for both players. The sender can commit to revealing a noisy signal regarding the realization of the payoffs of various actions, and would like to do so to maximize her own payoff in expectation assuming that the receiver rationally acts to maximize his own payoff. When the payoffs of various actions follow a joint distribution (the common prior), the sender's problem is nontrivial, and its computational complexity depends on the representation of this prior. We examine the sender's optimization task in three of the most natural input models for this problem, and essentially pin down its computational complexity in each. When the payoff distributions of the different actions are independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.) and given explicitly, we exhibit a polynomial-time (exact) algorithmic solution, and a "simple" (1-1=e)-approximation algorithm. Our optimal scheme for the i.i.d. setting involves an analogy to auction theory, and makes use of Border's characterization of the space of reduced-forms for single-item auctions. When action payoffs are independent but nonidentical with marginal distributions given explicitly, we show that it is #P-hard to compute the optimal expected sender utility. In doing so, we rule out a generalized Border's theorem, in the sense of Gopalan, Nisan, and Roughgarden [Public projects, boolean functions, and the borders of Border's theorem, in Proceedings of the Sixteenth ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, EC '15, ACM, New York, 2015, p. 395], for this setting. Finally, we consider a general (possibly correlated) joint distribution of action payoffs presented by a black box sampling oracle, and exhibit a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) with a bicriteria guarantee. Our FPTAS is based on Monte Carlo sampling, and its analysis relies on the principle of deferred decisions. Moreover, we show that this result is the best possible in the black-box model for information-theoretic reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-memory error correction code (ECC) is a promising technique to improve the yield and reliability of high density memory design. However, the use of in-memory ECC poses a new problem to memory repair analysis algorithm, which has not been explored before. This article first makes a quantitative evaluation and demonstrates that the straightforward algorithms for memory with redundancy and in-memory ECC have serious deficiency on either repair rate or repair analysis speed. Accordingly, an optimal repair analysis algorithm that leverages preprocessing/filter algorithms, hybrid search tree, and depth-first search strategy is proposed to achieve low computational complexity and optimal repair rate in the meantime. In addition, a heuristic repair analysis algorithm that uses a greedy strategy is proposed to efficiently find repair solutions. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed optimal repair analysis algorithm can achieve optimal repair rate and increase the repair analysis speed by up to 105 × compared with the straightforward exhaustive search algorithm. The proposed heuristic repair analysis algorithm is approximately 28 percent faster than the proposed optimal algorithm, at the expense of 5.8 percent repair rate loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The approximability and the computational complexity of the Maximum Happy Set problem (MaxHS) are studied. • A (2 Δ + 1) -approximation algorithm for MaxHS on graphs with maximum degree Δ is presented. • The approximation ratio is improved to Δ if the maximum degree Δ is a constant. • The polynomial-time solvability of MaxHS on block/interval graphs is proved. • The NP-hardness of MaxHS on bipartite/cubic graphs is proved. In this paper we study the approximability of the Maximum Happy Set problem (MaxHS) and the computational complexity of MaxHS on graph classes: For an undirected graph G = (V , E) and a subset S ⊆ V of vertices, a vertex v is happy if v and all its neighbors are in S ; otherwise unhappy. Given an undirected graph G = (V , E) and an integer k , the goal of MaxHS is to find a subset S ⊆ V of k vertices such that the number of happy vertices is maximized. MaxHS is known to be NP-hard. In this paper, we design a (2 Δ + 1) -approximation algorithm for MaxHS on graphs with maximum degree Δ. Next, we show that the approximation ratio can be improved to Δ if the maximum degree Δ of the input graph is a constant. Then, we show that MaxHS can be solved in polynomial time if the input graph is restricted to block graphs, or interval graphs. We prove nevertheless that MaxHS on bipartite graphs or on cubic graphs remains NP-hard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sequential attack detection in a distributed sensor network is considered, where each sensor successively produces one-bit quantized samples of a desired deterministic scalar parameter corrupted by additive noise. The unknown parameters in the pre-attack and post-attack models, namely the desired parameter to be estimated and the injected malicious data at the attacked sensors pose a significant challenge for designing a computationally efficient scheme for each sensor to detect the occurrence of attacks by only using local communication with neighboring sensors. The generalized Cumulative Sum (GCUSUM) algorithm is considered, which replaces the unknown parameters with their maximum likelihood estimates in the CUSUM test statistic. For the problem under consideration, a sufficient condition is provided under which the expected false alarm period of the GCUSUM can be guaranteed to be larger than any given value. Next, we consider the distributed implementation of the GCUSUM. We first propose an alternative test statistic which is asymptotically equivalent to that of GCUSUM. Then based on the proposed alternative test statistic and running consensus algorithms, we propose a distributed approximate GCUSUM algorithm which significantly reduce the prohibitively high computational complexity of the centralized GCUSUM. Numerical results show that the proposed distributed approximate GCUSUM algorithm can provide a performance that is comparable to the centralized GCUSUM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation problem is a fundamental problem in operations research, where items need to be transported from supply nodes (each with a given supply) to demand nodes (each with a given demand) in the cheapest possible way. Here, we are interested in a generalization of the transportation problem where, each supply node has a (possibly empty) set of conflicting pairs of demand nodes, and each demand node a (possibly empty) set of conflicting pairs of supply nodes. Each supply node may only send supply to at most one demand node of each conflicting pair. Likewise, each demand node may only receive supply from at most one supply node of each conflicting pair. We call the resulting problem the transportation problem with conflicts (TPC). We show that the complexity of TPC depends upon the structure of the so-called conflict graph that follows from the conflicting pairs. More concrete, we show that for many graph-classes the corresponding TPC remains NP-hard, and for some special cases we derive constant factor approximation algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Multi-Spreader Crane Scheduling Problem (MSCSP), containers with identical dimensions but variable weights are arranged along a grid. A multi-spreader crane is used to lift all the containers. The crane has m > 1 modes. When it is in the p th mode, the crane can remove p adjacent containers along the same row at the same time as long as the total weight of the containers does not exceed the loading capacity κ p. Such a lift takes h p minutes. It also takes c p , q minutes for the crane to switch from mode p to q when p ≠ q. The goal is to find a crane lift sequence so that the total time it takes to lift all the containers is minimized. This paper investigates the computational complexity of MSCSP. First, we establish a connection between greedy crane lift sequences and supersequences. We then prove that MSCSP is NP-hard when the crane has three or more modes by a reduction from a version of the Shortest Common Supersequence problem. Lastly, we investigate two problems that arise naturally when heuristics are used to solve MSCSP. We show that one can be solved using dynamic programming while the other remains computationally hard. We also provide an approximation algorithm that behaves nicely when the changeover times are not much larger than the lifting times of the crane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]